Caramel Pear Pie with Oat Crumble

Dec 14, 2013

Apparently, making some kind of pear pie is becoming my new Thanksgiving tradition. My family always has so much food that I just try to fill in gaps or find something a little interesting to contribute.

Last year I wanted a fruit dessert, since we had so much rich stuff. I made my healthy apple pear pie with streusel topping, which was exactly what we needed in the midst of all the sweets.

This year I didn’t really have anything specific in mind. Then, I ran across this recipe from A Cozy Kitchen and knew that I had to make it right away. While I don’t really get that excited about caramel, I absolutely LOVE pears and any kind of crumble topping.

What’s really magical about this pie happens while it bakes. What starts as a simple streusel topping—oats, sugar, spices, butter—turns into a golden melt-in-your-mouth crust when the caramel bubbles up and marries up with the streusel.

Seriously, it’s amazing. On the whole, the pie was just a TAD sweet for me. I prefer something mildly sweet but not too rich, but for a Thanksgiving treat it was great!

Birthday Red Wine Chocolate Cake!

Oct 10, 2013

I cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food.
~W.C. Fields

Sometimes I have incredibly coherent, well-phrased, occasionally-beautiful thoughts. And then sometimes, like when I saw this recipe for the first time, I just blurt things out.

UM. WHAT. YES.

That’s pretty much how that conversation went in my head.

Last year my birthday fell on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) which was very sad from a food and wine standpoint. This year, it fell on the 8th day, the day after the Feast of Tabernacles, and unfortunately I spent the majority of it in airports and airplanes trying to get home from Steamboat Springs. I did get to have a lovely dinner with my parents the night before, however, and brunch with my mom that morning before I left. And I happened upon a lovely wine bar (Cru) during my 3-hour layover in Denver and celebrated in my own way—with flights of Cabernet and some creamy tiramisu. So not all was lost.

I started a little ritual last year for my birthday, where I’d pick a dessert recipe that had really captured my imagination for some reason—maybe it felt a little fancy, needed a special occasion, was a little more work—and make it for my birthday. Except, scheduling being what it is in my life, it basically ends up being somewhere within a month window of my birthday. Which is kind of the same thing. I just wanted something that felt a little special, and an excuse to make something fun. Last year it was my vanilla almond cupcakes with homemade peach jam filling. And this year it’s this awesomeness.

Growing up, birthdays weren’t really a big thing. But to me, I like to make a tiny bit of fuss for it. Not go overboard, but just a little something special.

This cake really is special. First, there’s the Dutch cocoa (vs. regular), which has so much more depth than regular cocoa powder. Then you add the red wine and a hint of cinnamon, and this cake just perfectly encapsulates indulgence. It’s everything that’s great about being a grown-up. It’s rich but not sweet, super moist but dense, just amazing.

Healthy Deep-Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Sep 5, 2013

I can tell what you’re thinking. That “healthy” and “deep-dish chocolate chip cookie pie” don’t belong together. It’s an oxymoron. I must be off my meds.

And to be fair, this should really be called “healthier”, not “healthy”. Because dessert will never be carrot sticks—it’s just a fact of life. Dessert CAN be made healthier, though, without giving up taste or awesomeness. And that’s what we’re doing here today.

This dish is pretty intense. Despite some major ingredient substitutions, it’s rich and sweet and soft and gooey. Plus lower in sugar and full of fiber and protein. And gluten-free. I might go so far as to say I like it better than I’d like a regular deep-dish cookie pie.

As you may have guessed, this healthy delight has a secret ingredient. No, it’s not the tears of a baby duck, or the hoof of a firstborn unicorn. What is it, then?

Oat Brown Sugar Strawberry Shortcake…and Happy Birthday ‘Merica!

Jul 4, 2013

Happy 4th of July! Here in Atlanta, everyone will be swimming…and by swimming, I mean trying to avoid floating away in a flash flood, not hanging out poolside. I will hopefully be avoiding the worst of the rain down on the Gulf Coast, but we’ll see how that goes.

Oh, yeah, back to ‘Merica. You know, apple pie tends to get all the glory when it comes to “American desserts”. But for my money, nothing is more American than strawberry shortcake.

First of all, it’s got the colors working in its favor. I mean, just look at it. And it’s got the sweet/cold/creamy combination that apple pie just can’t match. There’s no question that my go-to summer dessert is strawberry shortcake. This one’s a little different, though.

And what makes it different is the oat flour. I happened across this recipe on A Cozy Kitchen and was immediately intrigued. The oat and brown sugar combo definitely sounded up my alley. I’d also never used oat flour, so I was curious about how it differed. It was kind of amazing actually, because it added this whole new, cool texture to the shortcakes. They were moist and fluffy when they shouldn’t have been (I mean, look how thin I accidentally cut them). They were moist and fluffy the next day, which everyone knows is death to biscuits. So I totally recommend going the extra mile and making the oat flour. It’s so easy, it’s not even an extra mile, really. Not even an extra kilometer. Extra few feet…?

Healthy Cardamom-Almond Peach Crisp

Jun 23, 2013

When I realized last weekend that the lovely farm stand peaches I’d bought needed to be used up sooner rather than later, I started thinking through my options and what I had on-hand. As I’ve mentioned before, my peach crisp is one of my go-to recipes, a lightly sweet, super summery dessert that checks all my major boxes. Healthy? Check. Perfect mix of spices? Check. Fiber & fruit? Check.

But I wanted to do something a little special, tweak my same-old recipe and try something different. And that’s when I landed on cardamom. The more I use it, the more I think that cardamom is a criminally underutilized spice in our cuisine. It’s most often found in Indian recipes (which I haven’t tried yet) and chai tea, but it’s also great combined with certain sweeter flavors—particularly pears, peaches, and chocolate. It’s fairly expensive (similar to saffron and vanilla), but a little goes a long way and so you can buy it once and have it on-hand for a long time.

So I added some cardamom to the crisp to give it a kick, as well as some almond extract which pairs wonderfully with both peaches and cardamom. Result? Delish!

I can’t wait to experiment with cardamom more, particularly with chocolate, as it’s so unusual—kind of like a mix between pumpkin pie spices and pepper.

Maple Bourbon Pecan Pie

May 5, 2013

To me, pecan pie is one of the most awesome traditional Southern foods. And maple BOURBON pecan pie???

Well, that takes things to a whole different plane.

I love pecan pie (in really small amounts!). And I love a good whiskey. Or a sometimes a not-as-good, if we’re talking cooking. And pie in general. That’s really good, too.

Good ol’ JD…

My mom found this recipe in a magazine a while back, and we finally got around to trying it for Thanksgiving last year. It was so good that I made it again for the Night to Be Much Observed this year, and it got rave reviews. The maple adds a little extra sweetness and the bourbon adds a smokiness and depth—all topped off (or bottomed-off) with my Aunt Kristy’s awesome whole wheat and oil pie crust!